Magyar Egyház, 1958 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1958-11-01 / 11. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

9

you may have a stronger urge to love God and His Holy one the Lord Jesus Christ, with all your heart. It is a natural trait in us to love those who do good to us and the more and greater the favor, the more and greater the appreciation is. The favour of God and the love of Jesus Christ unto us is utmost and indescribable; oh! what love should we have, therefore? Really, if we could, it should be the utmost. But because we mortal and weak creatures cannot do this, we should love Him the best we can, with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strength.

3. The one whom we truly love we strive to please, therefore, you, fellow Christian, prove your love to God and to Jesus Christ by endeavoring to keep His commandments and conduct your life accordingly that it be good and pleasing in His sight. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and His commandments are not grievous”, (1 John 5:3). Even our Redeemer says: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings”. (John 14:23,24.)

4. Out of these acts of God and Jesus Christ for your redemption take into consideration the preciousness of your soul. See, how highly he valued it when he was willing to give His only begotten Son to lead it out of danger? See, how greatly was it valued by the Lord Jesus Christ when He gave Himself into misery and death for it? The gold-diggers go down deep into the bosom of the earth because it is precious; the pearlfinders lower themselves into the depth of the sea for that is precious, too. But, oh! how much more precious is your soul because the Son of God lowered Himself into the depth of humility and misery, or if God considered it so valuable, consider it so and take the best of care of it.

5. Consider with special heed the souls of your fellowmen, especially those who have been entrusted to your care: your husband, your wife, your sons, your daughters, your kin-folks, your manservants and maidservants as much as your duty requires it, diligently promoting their salvation through exhortation, teaching, reprimand and good example. Consider yourself happy when you can do good for someone, for so precious are the souls that God became man; the Lord of glory was humiliated, suffered and was willing to die for it.

6. Finally if God was willing to do all these wonderful and difficult tasks for your salvation when He did not benefit by it; what about you, fellow Christian, wouldn’t you do that little for your own salvation, what is required of you? The wonderful goodness and love of God did things to such an extent, the obstacles were so far removed that you have only one thing to do: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”. (Acts 16:31.) It is true that not some kind of bare, lean faith is required, but such a faith which is fruitful by good deeds and a devoted life.Yet how little is, what you have to do compared to what God has done for your salvation, for he is satisfied with your faint, deficient sanctity and loyalty; but this should be with a true heart. Exert yourself — therefore — with good-measure to complete that little with self-dedication and care as it behooves a Christian; be faithful over a few things that some day you will be told: “thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord”. (Matthew 25:23.)

THE BISHOP REPORTS:

Thanksgiving Day must be observed in our churches in the spirit of Christian gratitude. God has been so merciful to us that our lives must be filled with thanksgiving for His lovingkindness and grace. Thanksgiving is strongly emphasized as a basic part of Reformed faith in the Heidelberg Catechism: Christian life is a grateful life.

,We are also close to the blessed season of Advent. It is a great joy to know that the Savior has come to break the chains of bondage and make us free from the power of sin.

In this spirit of thanksgiving and advent we can bear witness to the truth of our Christian faith and our churches can transcend into the real body of Christ if we fulfil the will of God for our days. This divine imperative for us to-day is the service of missions. We cannot stop emphasizing that the Church is Church only if it is serving her Lord through missions.

Last month we had the first denominational “Missions Sunday”. I hope it has been a powerful Christian experience in all of our churches. There are, however, some churches, which did not respond yet. Please, do so by sending your contributions to our Treasurer, Mr. Albert St. Miklossy. Let us not forget the needs of our Central Fund and the commitments we made to the support of Magyar Egyház, our denominational monthly.

It is a privilege to report that I represented our Church at the Cornerstone dedication ceremonies of the Inter-Church Center in New York City. In the presence of President Eisenhower, along with the other Protestant and Orthodox denominations of the N.C.C.C. our Hungarian Reformed Church was dedicating this new headquarters of American Christianity.

I have attended the anniversaries of the Akron, Ohio, Carteret, New Jersey, Staten Island, New York Churches. I could not attend the anniversary of our Windsor, Ontario congregation because of the air lines strike. May God bless the life of their church. The Rev. Stephen Kovács and the Rev. John P. Nagy represented the diocese and me.

Our best wishes are going to the Warrenville Church at their coming anniversary and to the Perth Amboy Church at their dedication of the new and magnificent Church School Building. I hope to attend both festivities.

Representing our denomination Dean Gábor Csordás and Dr. Andrew Harsányi attended the General Board meeting of Church World Service which helped so much Hungarian refugees in the past. The Reverend Komjáthy, my secretary, attended as permanent member the meeting of the Theological Commission of the North American section of the Presbyterian World Alliance in Princeton, New Jersey. This commission is led by the new President of Princeton Theologi